In this chapter, we describe theories that explain status organizing processes, drawing from foundational theories in the group processes tradition of social psychology. Specifically, we discuss theories in the expectation states research program, and the ways in which status processes can be observed and studied across levels of social structure. After describing the theories and providing some examples of research using them, we turn to a discussion of the macro level processes: status effects at the societal level, where characteristics acquire status value. We then move to the meso level, in which we discuss status within organization contexts. Lastly, we describe status at the micro level, which is the interactional level at which status processes are most commonly conceived within the expectation states tradition. We conclude this chapter by discussing considerations for status and expectation states research.